Arielle Rahal

The Gaza flotilla members as they’re: 🔴 Released from Israel and about to board the plane 🔴 Arriving in Istanbul 🔴 And what followed seemingly moments later... 🤡

@tozzzca @RZimmt Because there are plenty of Iran experts who aren’t monarchists.

@RZimmt Sorry to be that open but how can we trust any „Iran Expert“ who does not recognise Reza Pahlavi as the only legitimate opposition leading Iran into democracy?

In my class on the Islamic Republic that I have been teaching at Tel Aviv University in recent years, I define Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency as an era of populism and opportunism. He called for Israel’s destruction and denied the Holocaust, yet also refused to dismiss his controversial deputy, Rahim Mashaei, after the latter declared that Iranians are friends of all the peoples of the world, including Israelis. He promoted ideas of “social justice" while simultaneously supporting the suppression of the “Green Movement,” which emerged in 2009 following allegations that the presidential election results had been falsified to secure his re-election for another term. He became known for his conservative religious views, yet one of his first acts as president was to appoint—for the first time since the revolution—a woman as a cabinet minister and to permit women to enter football stadiums (a decision that was quickly reversed under pressure from the clergy). He adopted a messianic outlook but also emphasized the Persian national-cultural component over the religious-Islamic component in Iranian national identity. Even when he was elected president in 2005, Ahmadinejad was perceived as an outsider lacking a significant political power base. He rose to power thanks to the support of the conservative religious establishment led by Khamenei, primarily because they viewed him as a suitable solution after eight years of the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami (“Ayatollah Gorbachev”), who was perceived as a significant threat to the values of the Islamic Revolution. Over the years, however, Ahmadinejad came to be seen as a president challenging both the clerical establishment and Khamenei himself. After dismissing his intelligence minister in April 2011 without the Supreme Leader’s approval, an unprecedented crisis erupted between him and Khamenei, turning Ahmadinejad into a “lame duck” for the remainder of his presidency. He and his associates were branded a “deviant current” within the Islamic Republic. Even the IRGC, which had played a major role in his election, soon joined the campaign against him. In recent years, Ahmadinejad has sought to reposition himself within Iranian politics not only through repeated attempts to run in presidential elections (in which his candidacy was disqualified by the Guardian Council) but also through activity on social media, including attention-grabbing tweets expressing support for the University of Michigan football team and quoting the American rapper Tupac Shakur. He even praised President Trump for his struggle against corruption in the American political system. His online presence was widely perceived as an attempt to cultivate the image of a supposedly moderate and popular statesman in the eyes of both Western and Iranian audiences. Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising that there were some in the U.S. and Israel who apparently saw Ahmadinejad as a potential candidate to lead an “alternative leadership” to the current Islamic regime. Moreover, public opinion polls published in recent years in Iran indicated relatively significant support among many Iranians for the former president, who was portrayed as the “antithesis” of the current ruling establishment. Nevertheless, public opinion polls—no matter how successful—and chants in his favor, especially among the lower classes during waves of protest, cannot pave the way for any politician to seize power in a country of more than 90 million citizens, even (and perhaps especially) when carried on the bayonets—or in this case, the aircraft—of Israel and the U.S. It is difficult to understand how anyone could have believed that Ahmadinejad might become Iran’s next ruler when the entire Iranian establishment, including the Revolutionary Guards, views him as a dissident, and perhaps more importantly, given his complete lack of an organizational support base upon which he could rely to serve as a genuine alternative to the Islamic regime. Some argue that the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, succeeded in carrying out the revolution despite having lived in exile since 1964 (mostly in Iraq and during his final months in France). Yet such comparisons completely ignore not only his success in building an organized revolutionary movement through cooperation among groups, parties, and sectors with differing and even opposing ideologies in pursuit of the shared goal of overthrowing the Shah, but also the extensive and organized network of loyal activists, mosques, and representatives across various sectors of society that served as his organizational and ideological platform and transmitted messages directly to the masses. Among other things, audio cassettes of Khomeini’s sermons were duplicated and widely distributed throughout the country, serving as a basis for civic organization, mass demonstrations, and strikes. The Islamic Republic suffers from a significant crisis of legitimacy, and the majority of the public does not support the current regime. At the same time, however, it also faces a crisis of the absence of an alternative. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has suppressed every potential force that might have developed into a meaningful alternative. If the U.S. and Israel are indeed interested in promoting political change in Iran, they would be better advised not to be tempted by magic solutions based on exiled Iranian leaders, politicians lacking an organizational infrastructure, or ethnic groups whose support only reinforces the regime’s narrative that Israel and the United States seek not merely to topple the regime but to dismantle Iran itself. Posing a significant challenge to the regime’s stability requires the formation of a broad nationwide coalition capable of uniting social groups focused on demands for economic improvement and social justice—such as workers and pensioners—with groups possessing a high degree of political consciousness, such as students, who are widely regarded as the standard-bearers of the struggle for political and civil liberties. Public opinion polls and analyses of slogans heard during protest waves can serve as one tool in attempting to understand deeper trends within Iranian society and to point toward possible directions for weakening the regime. However, simplistic analysis, disregard for the nuances characterizing Iranian society, and underestimation of the strength of the “deep state,” which renders the Iranian regime resilient, are a recipe for flawed and superficial assessments that often lead to the adoption of failed policies.

@Celestemarcus3 Because it’s an absurd claim that’s upside down in reality.

Israel poses an existential threat to the liberal values that made America the safest place for Jews in the history of our nation. Why on earth are we not acting like it?

@42applesenergy @HusseinAboubak This is called double standard based on antisemitism. You hold no other countries to such a purity test.

@HusseinAboubak Except the opposition to Israel is because of Israel’s conduct, not merely because of the left.

The establishment’s reasoning is basic strategic calculation: the left will not relent on Israel; a civil war inside the party over the Jewish state would destroy the coalition; therefore, the rational move is to concede this issue, preserve party unity, and proceed with the moderate agenda on everything else: affordability, climate, migration, AI, etc. Feed this one thing to the beast, and the beast will be satisfied. It is an intelligent calculation, and it is a catastrophic one, because it rests on a misapprehension of what is being conceded and to whom. link to full essay below

@Evan_Rosenfeld @FleurHassanN Okayyyy and what other countries have an ethnic majority that ends up impacting how elections play out? Idk most of Europe?!?!?

@FleurHassanN Christianity is a religion and nothing but a religion. Judaism is both an ethnicity and a religion.

Israel isn’t really a liberal democracy in the way Americans use that term. It’s a democracy. But it’s an ethnic democracy; a Jewish democracy. It’s a concept that makes some American Jews, in particular, deeply uncomfortable.

@NizMhani @RawaneOsmane Tell me you don’t actually know anything about the Talmud without telling me.

@RawaneOsmane Will you be adopting the Talmud in your daily practice?

A secular Jew asked me why I was converting to Judaism. Why would a rational, educated woman choose to join an ancient people and embrace traditions that seem to belong to another age? Did I truly believe those traditions were still relevant? My answer is simple: Judaism survived because of its traditions, not despite them. What modernity often dismisses as outdated ritual is precisely what preserved Judaism when empires collapsed, borders shifted, and entire civilizations vanished. Judaism did not endure by accident. It endured because it anchored human life to meaning, discipline, and moral responsibility. Where others dissolved into myth or memory, Judaism remained a living system. Long before these ideas became fashionable, Judaism introduced principles we now take for granted. It insisted that no human being stands above moral accountability. That power does not grant impunity. That compassion must extend beyond convenience, to the vulnerable, the weak, even to animals. That rest is not a luxury reserved for the privileged but a commandment binding all. And that time itself must be structured, sanctified, and directed. Judaism brought order into human existence. It introduced a calendar, a rhythm, a weekly reset, a moral framework, and a sense of mission. It taught that freedom without discipline becomes chaos, and that meaning does not emerge spontaneously. Meaning must be cultivated, practiced, and renewed. Is this irrelevant in the 21st century? People still lie to escape responsibility. They still seek shortcuts in moments of pressure. They are still cruel to others and to themselves. And they still need to be reminded that life is not arbitrary, that human beings are accountable to something higher than appetite, ego, or ideology. Judaism insists that above us is a source, a Creator, from which both our unity and our diversity emerge. Humanity may number billions today, but the Torah begins with one. With origins. With Bereshit. Because to understand where we are going, we must understand where we come from. The Torah does not offer abstract philosophy detached from lived reality. It tells stories, human, flawed, and timeless stories, that illuminate the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. It speaks of jealousy, power, failure, responsibility, repentance, and moral struggle. That is precisely why those stories endure. They are not frozen in time. They speak to every generation anew. Judaism, then, is not a relic. It is a system of moral memory. It is a civilizational framework that trains human beings to pause, reflect, restrain themselves, and choose responsibility over impulse. In an age obsessed with speed, gratification, and self-expression, Judaism insists on restraint, reflection, and continuity. That is why the question of relevance misses the point. If Judaism were merely symbolic, merely cultural, merely metaphorical, it would not have survived. And if it were irrelevant, Zionism itself would be unintelligible. What is Zionism without Judaism, without the original story, the language, the laws, the calendar, and the covenant that bind a people to a specific land and history? Why should Israel exist precisely where it does if Judaism is nothing more than an abstract faith detached from place, memory, and obligation? Strip Judaism of its traditions, and what remains is not enlightenment, but erosion. Without obligation, there is no continuity. Without practice, there is no identity. Without memory, there is no people. For me, Judaism is not an abstraction. It is not a costume, nor nostalgia, nor a political statement. It is identity carried through time, through exile, through Babylon and beyond. It is woven into history, culture, memory, and continuity. Anyone who takes a DNA test in the Middle East understands this instinctively. The connection is not theoretical. It is embodied. That is why tradition in Judaism is not only relevant today. It is indispensable. #israel #judaism #zionism

@SZade15 Hamas blew off Hersh’s arm on Oct. 7th then amputated the rest of it without anesthesia. You can see all of them have dropped significant weight in this because Hamas was starving them. Hamas then murdered them in cold blood and this is your take??? You’re repulsive.

You’re telling me Hamas let them sing Hanukkah songs, pray, and record it… and this is supposed to fit the ‘they hate Jews’ script?

@AyshaSusmaz @SZade15 🤣🤣🤣 Jesus was a Jew from Judea who stood against Roman colonizers. He was literally for Jewish self determination in Jewish ancestral lands aka the definition of a Zionist

Jesus (PBUH) was born around 4–6 BCE, while Zionism emerged in 1897 as a modern political movement.

@AnnLesbyPhD When you make having a PhD your whole personality but still don’t know shit

I just found out this country exists and I am literally shaking & vomiting 😭🤢

@Royarsofficial @lelemSLP lol that’s not a thing

Wow. These liars are scamming millions of people, for 2 years... Now they are all exposed!!!

@JohnTheBapatist @ScarlettGrace92 You mean one who figured out right and wrong and has a strong moral compass despite being raised to be hateful and commit jihad? Also why are you equating Hamas with all Palestinians? Thought all Palestinians weren’t terrorists?

A vaguely remember people wanting an update after my message from Mosab Hassan Yousef. 🤔 Update:

@estherzelda0514 I’ve been having similar thoughts. On top of what you listed, it’s the way the perpetrators mock their victims and seem to be getting joy out of the fear of those they’re about to kill, the way they are basically giggling while forcing people to dig their own grave.

I don't normally like comparing atrocities, but what is happening in Sudan does remind me of October 7th. In both cases, the perpetrators are Arab Supremacists, and in both cases, the international community does nothing while reports of sexual violence spread.

@faiyazasm @MLipivore @havivrettiggur Even Hamas doesn’t claim those numbers you moronic psychopath

@MLipivore @havivrettiggur One can tell one’s inhumanity by the number of children wantonly killed by them : y’all murdered about 30K !!

Something astonishing is underway in the Israeli Arab educational world. For the first time ever, a higher percentage of Arabs are passing their high school matriculation tests than Jews, 78.3% to 77.8%. Among the Bedouin of the Negev, a group that historically trails far behind both Jews and Christians, the number leaped from 48% to 71% just in the last six years. Six. Years. From 2019 to 2025. It's part of a larger trend of growing Arab presence in higher education too. For example, the percentage of Arabs in the student body of Hebrew University, Israel's top-ranked and largest university, doubled between 2004 and 2019 from 7% to 14%. Arab students are over 35% of Haifa University's student body and 20% of the Technion's, Israel's most elite technological school. Between 2010 and 2017, they rose from 10.2% of all Israeli undergrads to 16.1%, with high representation in education, business and medicine. First slowly and then very quickly, the Arabs are on the march educationally in Israel. And Israeli high-tech and medicine and other fields will feel the tremendous benefit of that shift in the coming years. And as far as I can tell - would love insight on this from those who know more - the change is entirely driven from within, by internal cultural changes in the community itself. The vanguard for many years was the excellent network of Christian schools in the Galilee and elsewhere that have long outperformed Jewish schools in matriculation rates and test scores. That culture of education, the broad sense that investing in education will pay off, seems to have spread to all parts of Arab society.

@NadiaJa11363107 @GerAmbTLV They live in Rahat….an established town with housing built per building permits and attached to water and sewage lines.

Four cousins from the Alkrenawi family, Bedouins from Rahat, saved some forty participants of the Nova festival on Oct 7. Today they were awarded the Mount Zion Award at Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey for their courage and their humanity.

@JenineMPH @HenMazzig When he’s taken from a party, Hamas would have no idea who he was, whether he was civilian or military. Not the point you think it is.

@HenMazzig Oh so he was a prisoner of war and not a hostage.

He has finally been authorized to announce that Avinatan Or, released today, served in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, the army’s most prestigious force, operating directly under the General Staff. A true hero of Israel 🇮🇱

@WearThePeaceCo “We are the peace” lying about a terrorist propagandist.

This was Saleh, the dreamer, the one most of us never had the honor of seeing. He had dreams like everyone else in Gaza. He was a ranked player in table tennis. He loved to sing and made songs before and during the genocide. He memorized all 600 pages of the Quran and loved Islam and he loved God. He was a Youtuber who started his journey on Youtube back in 2020 where he vlogged his life, added his songs, and showed the beauty of Gaza. Saleh Aljafarawi, for 27 years of his life, lived under a brutal occupation whose only mission was to kill more Palestinians and steal more Palestinian land. For two years, he starved with his people as he reported on limbless and bloody dead children, night and day. He ran towards airstrikes. He ran towards blood. Saleh’s name in Arabic means “virtuous” and “righteous.” What a virtuous and righteous man this world has lost. He woke up millions of people to the ugliness of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the greed and evil that runs our world. He died telling the truth. Western journalists live to tell lies. Palestine is bigger than just Palestine. Palestine is for every person who believes in freedom. Saleh’s death will not be in vain. Glory be to the martyrs. Free Palestine. Free us all. Videos are from Saleh’s Youtube Page

@notasdfghjklx @MrkTvt @feelsdesperate Are you sure he’s not just a narcissist who discarded those who no longer serve his aims…?

@MrkTvt @feelsdesperate Hasan and i’s close mutual friends agree. He’s in too deep, lost sense of the line a long time ago. He’s kinda ousted those of us who cause some sort of cognitive dissonance for him when we remind him of the past just before he exploded. It’s sad tbh, we were like brothers.

Walter Kirn on Hasan Piker: I’m going to tell you the truest thing you’ll ever hear about Hasan Piker. I’m not telling you this because I don’t like him. I fear him, because I fear his type, because I’ve seen it. The reason he’s a socialist is because he has absolutely no empathy at all for other beings, for dogs, for old ladies, for poor people, for anything. But, when you have zero empathy, which is the mark of psychopathy, you compensate by adopting the politics of total empathy. It means the lady doth protest too much. You’re always finding out that Republicans who seem like all they care about is their portfolio and stuff, but they’re like fun people and they’re kind of nice guys and sort of generous. Or you find out the Democrats who are all really principled and whatever, they crack a dirty joke at a card game, and you’re like, “Right on.” That guy though, he can’t be a mixed bag, because he knows a fact about himself. The ineradicable ubiquitous fact that follows him every minute is, “I am an empty howling wasteland of nothingness. And everything that I do must be contrived to hide that from the world, or I can’t use them as my victims, or I can’t use them as my sexual partners, or I can’t get them to clean my house, or I can’t get them to serve me in a restaurant, or I can’t get them to represent me and make my podcast really big. So, I’m going to be a socialist with a cuddly dog, who just hangs loose, because I like rock and roll. Oh, yeah, I got to put a ZYN in because I’m just kind of that guy.” He is a complete artifact covering an ice-cold Antarctic wind.

@MorganC000 @SollySollinger @MaxNordau Believe what? The videos of it? The Gazans who post pictures of the flyers or about the various warnings they received? The people we personally know in units whose job that is???

@SollySollinger @MaxNordau If you believe that, your brain is broken.

BREAKING: President Trump just revealed that Hamas lost 58,000 people. The total death count in Azza is roughly 67,000. This means that Israel's ratio of militants:civilians is roughly 6.4:1, which is UNPRECEDENTED in modern urban warfare. Wow!

@MorganC000 @MaxNordau It’s almost as if wanting civilians and providing humanitarian zones worked!

@MaxNordau If 90 percent of buildings are gone, how is that fatality figure accurate ? Are we to believe Palestinians were out of town as their homes were bombed with allegedly 200K tons of munitions?

@TheTyJager @poopernoodle Because it’s not misinformation. He abuses dogs and has now gaslit you into thinking otherwise. Watching people fall for his lame defenses has been actually insane to see.

@poopernoodle Why can't you apologize for falling for misinformation and participating in it? You can say that you care about dogs and apologize for making an incorrect assumption that added on to a harassment campaign. Have accountability for yourself instead of playing the victim.

I deleted the tweet. It’s just not worth the harassment and my mental health. I hate seeing dogs in pain, my dog is a huge part of my content, that’s why I felt I could say something. Sorry to anyone I upset or offended, but I’m not sorry for speaking about animal abuse.